STOP ILLEGAL GUN SALES

Hartford police officers recovered about 400 illegally acquired firearms last year. Those weapons didn't pop up out of thin air.

People who owned or had access to legal firearms either lost them or sold them to convicted criminals, the mentally ill and other people who were unauthorized to own guns.

Many violent urban crimes and college campus shootings could be prevented if Congress would pass laws to impose foolproof methods of stopping legal guns from getting into the wrong hands.

Unfortunately, efforts to pass such laws are often thwarted by the powerful National Rifle Association gun lobby on grounds that they would violate the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

A new national organization called Mayors Against Illegal Guns, whose members include Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez and Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch, proposed a four-step legislative plan last week aimed at curbing the flow of illegal firearms in ways that do not raise Second Amendment issues.

Congress should take heed and act on the recommendations.

The mayors want Congress to stop gun-show sales of firearms to people without background checks; require checks on gun-shop employees; block gun dealers with revoked licenses from selling off their weapons stock; and bar people on the terrorist no-fly list from purchasing guns.

Elsewhere in the country, some states are beginning to follow Connecticut's example and are passing laws forcing gun owners to report lost or stolen weapons immediately. Others are considering laws to require criminal background checks on ammunition buyers and to place imprints on ammunition so as to better trace guns used in crimes.

Congress should take these matters up as well. Restricting illegal gun traffic is a law enforcement issue, not a Second Amendment issue.